Monday, September 29, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Comments for someone elses future doctoral thesis
So apparently, one of the upsides of paying so much to go to school is that he school has enough money to pay a lot to the Professors. I’m studying accounting from the guy who literally wrote the book on accounting. So, strangely enough, I’m actually enjoying accounting. Let us not confuse enjoyment with complete understanding, but still…
So here is a little bit of accounting info: It turns out (Prof. Libby uses this expression a lot) that while a company accounting for its assets, has to report the cost price of the factories, machines, land, natural resources etc. that it uses for the running of its operations. It also has to account for their depreciated value. That means that it has to make an estimate of how long it will be able to use whatever it is and then divide the cost by that estimated number of years, and each year take that sum off of the book value.
So, when I got sick of doing accounting exercises, my mind started wandering, and sadly this is what it wandered to: How many years of useful life do oil companies estimated for their oil wells? Has this changed over the years, and if so, how has it changed over the last few years during the debate on the diminishing crude oil reserves? Have companies re-estimated? If so, have they changes the estimation to be higher or lower?
Professor Libby, despite his great accounting wisdom, didn’t know the answer but did acknowledge that was an interesting question. He also added that, from an accounting perspective, it’s interesting to note that companies who own natural resources might at times change estimates from a resource depleting itself to suddenly having value again. An example is natural gas. In the last few years, gas prices have risen enough and technology has advanced enough that it makes economic sense to go back to a field that previously was shut down, and drill again. This in some way has to be reflected in the books, despite the fact that the book value of the natural resources has already reached zero.
So here is a little bit of accounting info: It turns out (Prof. Libby uses this expression a lot) that while a company accounting for its assets, has to report the cost price of the factories, machines, land, natural resources etc. that it uses for the running of its operations. It also has to account for their depreciated value. That means that it has to make an estimate of how long it will be able to use whatever it is and then divide the cost by that estimated number of years, and each year take that sum off of the book value.
So, when I got sick of doing accounting exercises, my mind started wandering, and sadly this is what it wandered to: How many years of useful life do oil companies estimated for their oil wells? Has this changed over the years, and if so, how has it changed over the last few years during the debate on the diminishing crude oil reserves? Have companies re-estimated? If so, have they changes the estimation to be higher or lower?
Professor Libby, despite his great accounting wisdom, didn’t know the answer but did acknowledge that was an interesting question. He also added that, from an accounting perspective, it’s interesting to note that companies who own natural resources might at times change estimates from a resource depleting itself to suddenly having value again. An example is natural gas. In the last few years, gas prices have risen enough and technology has advanced enough that it makes economic sense to go back to a field that previously was shut down, and drill again. This in some way has to be reflected in the books, despite the fact that the book value of the natural resources has already reached zero.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Comments for my future doctoral thesis (2)
The upside of Uri not being here is that I can focus my non-study time on writing and not on Uri. At the risk of being kicked out of the MBA program, I want to share with you another observation I recently had.
To put it in context, and let you in on a bit of or semi-social life, last Saturday Uri and I participated in a school tradition called Johnson Night Out. This is a school organized event in which School Faculty and 2nd year students host 1st and 2nd year students for pot-luck dinners. Pot-luck is the American expression that means, everybody brings a dish for everyone to share. We were assigned to go to Prof. Charlotte Rosen’s house and invited with us was one 2nd year student and 2 other 1st years.
We got into a conversation about “the job market”. I won’t go how we got to it, but I at one point said that I think it’s sad that the world has come to a point where an MBA is so (over)appreciated, and a PhD is so under appreciated. How do I put this delicately? I guess I could call it a faux-pas.
Everybody was shocked at my statement and proceeded to state that there are a lot of vital skills taught in an MBA program that a PhD does not necessarily have. Now, let me say what should have been obvious to everyone there – I am in an MBA program. Therefore I am very grateful at the business world’s faith in such program to determine success in management position. And I do believe that this will help me reach my short and long term career goals. However, I am also able to step aside and look at this system with a bit of criticism in order to say that more than anything else the MBA program is a long screening process. It’s about getting into a club and being “one of the gang”. Most jobs, at least the high-profile ones, have some sort of training in order to purchase the main skills needed for the job. And these are jobs that a person who is smart and has good deductive skills can do, at a starting level, without much experience. I do not doubt that an MBA does a good job in training for this. I just wonder when did it become so that a PhD (and it doesn’t matter in what) isn’t an indicator for these things?
So back to the main point, I was really surprised at the fact that this was such a faux pas. Is it an American thing? Is it an MBA thing? I don’t know the answer. Hence the title of the post.
To put it in context, and let you in on a bit of or semi-social life, last Saturday Uri and I participated in a school tradition called Johnson Night Out. This is a school organized event in which School Faculty and 2nd year students host 1st and 2nd year students for pot-luck dinners. Pot-luck is the American expression that means, everybody brings a dish for everyone to share. We were assigned to go to Prof. Charlotte Rosen’s house and invited with us was one 2nd year student and 2 other 1st years.
We got into a conversation about “the job market”. I won’t go how we got to it, but I at one point said that I think it’s sad that the world has come to a point where an MBA is so (over)appreciated, and a PhD is so under appreciated. How do I put this delicately? I guess I could call it a faux-pas.
Everybody was shocked at my statement and proceeded to state that there are a lot of vital skills taught in an MBA program that a PhD does not necessarily have. Now, let me say what should have been obvious to everyone there – I am in an MBA program. Therefore I am very grateful at the business world’s faith in such program to determine success in management position. And I do believe that this will help me reach my short and long term career goals. However, I am also able to step aside and look at this system with a bit of criticism in order to say that more than anything else the MBA program is a long screening process. It’s about getting into a club and being “one of the gang”. Most jobs, at least the high-profile ones, have some sort of training in order to purchase the main skills needed for the job. And these are jobs that a person who is smart and has good deductive skills can do, at a starting level, without much experience. I do not doubt that an MBA does a good job in training for this. I just wonder when did it become so that a PhD (and it doesn’t matter in what) isn’t an indicator for these things?
So back to the main point, I was really surprised at the fact that this was such a faux pas. Is it an American thing? Is it an MBA thing? I don’t know the answer. Hence the title of the post.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
How time flys by
For all of you who might have been worried – I am alive.
Some of you have commented that it has been a long time since last I wrote. My only defense is to say that time has lost all meaning where I am, so I haven't really been aware of exactly how much time has gone by.
I guess it's safe to say that my life is pretty crazy. This week I woke up in a panic. It was 6:20 am, which meant that I had over slept by 20 minutes. I know that to some of you are saying to yourselves “I get up before 6, what's her problem?” Well, for one thing – the reason I was oversleeping was that I want to sleep after 1 am. But that aside, the point I'm trying to get at is how worried I was by the fact that I'm starting the day so “late”. There are so many things happening, so many things I have to do, so many things I want to do, that it can get over-whelming. As it turns out (this is an expression professors use a lot – it turns out it's the intellectual “like” or “ya' know”) this is what is hard in business school. The formal teaching is what it is, and everybody here is smart enough to understand and do well, given enough time. The question is: What is enough time for you? If you are average (for the school) you might be able to do your school work and a few of the other basic things that go towards career building. If your above average, you'll be able to do more extra-curricular.
I assume that I need to explain the phrase “things that go towards career building”. Not only because it's vague, but because it is key to understanding the trickiness of time management in business school. The thing is that in today's market – and by this I am not referring to the economic state, but to the fact that there is a high supply of MBA students, it is hard to get a job. So starting from day on
e, the MBA program teaches you skills and coordinates events that go towards finding a job. This might mean having a course in Leadership, teaching us how to present ourselves in social events and where to put our name-tags or holding “corporate briefings” - an event in which a slew of people who work in a certain company come to campus, tell us about the company and then interact with us during a small cocktail party (=”networking event”). At the last we get to use the skills that we developed at all the “Sage Socials” and basically try to make the best impression we can, so that come interview time, we might have some advantage over our peers. I'm going to continue on the last example, because it is the best one, as it is the most intangible.
So... “Corporate briefing”, how much time does it require? The company will talk for 45 minutes, but you really really really don't want to be late, so it's marked on the calendar as 50. After that, there is the social, and that's really your chance to make any sort of impression, so you can't miss it or leave early – so that's another 45 minutes. All done? NO! There were at least 20 people in the briefing, how will anyone remember you over them? You need to find a way to continue the relationship: Write them a thank you note, write an e-mail asking to continue the conversation. (I'm cynical about this now, but it if it's a company you think you want to work in, these things are also important in order to make sure that the company is a good fit for you). So how much time does e-mailing require? More than you would think. The email you send is your digital footprint. You do not want any mistakes in it, so you spent quite a bit of time writing and proofing it. Because my natural tendency is to be more informal than formal (part of the deal of being Israeli), I also have someone else proof my emails. So there go another 45 minutes – and we're up to more than 2 hours allocated to career building. And that's just one company's briefing - there are multiple companies and there are more types of events. And they all have that deceiving quality that, unexplained, they might seem like fun. It's not that they are not fun, it's that their main purpose, and the reason you participate, is not necessarily the fun. I will however make the disclaimer that there are clubs and events that are purely for fun (As this is the USA, these things usually involve beer drinking).
The bottom line is that each student has to decide how much time he or she wants to spend doing each type of thing. Nobody is meant to do everything, but no one will tell you which is more important.
Some of you have commented that it has been a long time since last I wrote. My only defense is to say that time has lost all meaning where I am, so I haven't really been aware of exactly how much time has gone by.
I guess it's safe to say that my life is pretty crazy. This week I woke up in a panic. It was 6:20 am, which meant that I had over slept by 20 minutes. I know that to some of you are saying to yourselves “I get up before 6, what's her problem?” Well, for one thing – the reason I was oversleeping was that I want to sleep after 1 am. But that aside, the point I'm trying to get at is how worried I was by the fact that I'm starting the day so “late”. There are so many things happening, so many things I have to do, so many things I want to do, that it can get over-whelming. As it turns out (this is an expression professors use a lot – it turns out it's the intellectual “like” or “ya' know”) this is what is hard in business school. The formal teaching is what it is, and everybody here is smart enough to understand and do well, given enough time. The question is: What is enough time for you? If you are average (for the school) you might be able to do your school work and a few of the other basic things that go towards career building. If your above average, you'll be able to do more extra-curricular.
I assume that I need to explain the phrase “things that go towards career building”. Not only because it's vague, but because it is key to understanding the trickiness of time management in business school. The thing is that in today's market – and by this I am not referring to the economic state, but to the fact that there is a high supply of MBA students, it is hard to get a job. So starting from day on
e, the MBA program teaches you skills and coordinates events that go towards finding a job. This might mean having a course in Leadership, teaching us how to present ourselves in social events and where to put our name-tags or holding “corporate briefings” - an event in which a slew of people who work in a certain company come to campus, tell us about the company and then interact with us during a small cocktail party (=”networking event”). At the last we get to use the skills that we developed at all the “Sage Socials” and basically try to make the best impression we can, so that come interview time, we might have some advantage over our peers. I'm going to continue on the last example, because it is the best one, as it is the most intangible.So... “Corporate briefing”, how much time does it require? The company will talk for 45 minutes, but you really really really don't want to be late, so it's marked on the calendar as 50. After that, there is the social, and that's really your chance to make any sort of impression, so you can't miss it or leave early – so that's another 45 minutes. All done? NO! There were at least 20 people in the briefing, how will anyone remember you over them? You need to find a way to continue the relationship: Write them a thank you note, write an e-mail asking to continue the conversation. (I'm cynical about this now, but it if it's a company you think you want to work in, these things are also important in order to make sure that the company is a good fit for you). So how much time does e-mailing require? More than you would think. The email you send is your digital footprint. You do not want any mistakes in it, so you spent quite a bit of time writing and proofing it. Because my natural tendency is to be more informal than formal (part of the deal of being Israeli), I also have someone else proof my emails. So there go another 45 minutes – and we're up to more than 2 hours allocated to career building. And that's just one company's briefing - there are multiple companies and there are more types of events. And they all have that deceiving quality that, unexplained, they might seem like fun. It's not that they are not fun, it's that their main purpose, and the reason you participate, is not necessarily the fun. I will however make the disclaimer that there are clubs and events that are purely for fun (As this is the USA, these things usually involve beer drinking).
The bottom line is that each student has to decide how much time he or she wants to spend doing each type of thing. Nobody is meant to do everything, but no one will tell you which is more important.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
It's good to invest in Dragons
Hello friends and family! This is Uri writing. Yes, this is not a mistake. I am using a voice recognition software that is called dragon.
It allows me to talk to the computer and the computer is supposed to understand what I'm talking and write it down. So far it's 70% accurate.
It's really fun to use. It gives me a whole new medium to communicate with you, but this way of communicating is new to me so please be patient. This post is not going to be as amusing as my wife posts I don't have the years of experience she has as a cynic and razor-sharp writer.
So what's going on with me? It's hard to tell, I have made good friends here and I like the city, but I still haven't found exactly what I am going to do here, and it's not easy to be in a state of uncertainty. But there are a couple of possibilities:
1) to be a private chef - that means to cook for families and to fill up their refrigerator with food for the whole week. I hope to have between three to five families every week. This idea seems to be the most realistic one, but it needs a lot of work and marketing
2) to be a teacher or substitute teacher. to teach in New York you have to have a diploma from New York State and that could be tricky but I am going to check it out
3) to be a cook in a restaurant, there are plenty of good restaurants in Ithaca area, but I am not sure that I have the experience to start as a cook and I'm not sure I want to start in lower capacity
These are pretty much my options here work-wise. But I have lots of other things to do here, for example I am working with the head of the diversity office on a project that is supposed to expose the student in the business school to other cultures. She offered me this project after she heard of my Masters Degree in conflict resolution and mediation. We had a sit down for two hours. It was really fun, she's a very nice person. It was fun using my intellect and experience and I got some good feedback from her and now where are working on this project together. So you can see I'm trying to keep myself busy.
So how was this post? It was really a good experience for me to write on my own. I am going to give this post to Tamar to check for any big mistakes but it's going to stay pretty much as I wrote it so you can see how the program works.
Hugs and kisses to anyone that I usually give hugs and kisses to and a manly handshake to the rest of you.
I will sign out with my usual (~`face uri
It allows me to talk to the computer and the computer is supposed to understand what I'm talking and write it down. So far it's 70% accurate.
It's really fun to use. It gives me a whole new medium to communicate with you, but this way of communicating is new to me so please be patient. This post is not going to be as amusing as my wife posts I don't have the years of experience she has as a cynic and razor-sharp writer.
So what's going on with me? It's hard to tell, I have made good friends here and I like the city, but I still haven't found exactly what I am going to do here, and it's not easy to be in a state of uncertainty. But there are a couple of possibilities:
1) to be a private chef - that means to cook for families and to fill up their refrigerator with food for the whole week. I hope to have between three to five families every week. This idea seems to be the most realistic one, but it needs a lot of work and marketing
2) to be a teacher or substitute teacher. to teach in New York you have to have a diploma from New York State and that could be tricky but I am going to check it out
3) to be a cook in a restaurant, there are plenty of good restaurants in Ithaca area, but I am not sure that I have the experience to start as a cook and I'm not sure I want to start in lower capacity
These are pretty much my options here work-wise. But I have lots of other things to do here, for example I am working with the head of the diversity office on a project that is supposed to expose the student in the business school to other cultures. She offered me this project after she heard of my Masters Degree in conflict resolution and mediation. We had a sit down for two hours. It was really fun, she's a very nice person. It was fun using my intellect and experience and I got some good feedback from her and now where are working on this project together. So you can see I'm trying to keep myself busy.
So how was this post? It was really a good experience for me to write on my own. I am going to give this post to Tamar to check for any big mistakes but it's going to stay pretty much as I wrote it so you can see how the program works.
Hugs and kisses to anyone that I usually give hugs and kisses to and a manly handshake to the rest of you.
I will sign out with my usual (~`face uri
The pressure is on
Some of might read the title of this post and think they will find an entry explaining why I haven't written in more than a week and about how intensive school has been since classes began last Monday.
You would, of course, be mistaken.
I am actually referring to the pressure I am putting on Uri by posting this blog to go ahead and post the next blog himself. Now I explain: We finally bought a desktop, and then finally the university let us have a second IP address so we could connect that computer to the Internet, and then finally installed the voice-to-text software we bought before coming here. (I sort of took the whole point out of the word "finally" there, didn't I?) So, as it turns out, Uri can write in English. There are a little mistakes here and there, but as some of you bother to comment, I make a few mistakes too - don't I?
So just to clarify - Uri is perfectly capable of blogging now, and if he doesn't do it, it's because he doesn't care about any of you readers ;)
I reserve a short comment for myself - we'll go for a subtitle:
You'll understand only when you get here
Today, after a mildly useless strategic leadership course that lasted 4 hours I had a true Ivy league experience. I went to the basement floor of Cornell's undergrad library to see a one of 5 copies of the Gettysburg Address. That's the one that starts with "Four score and seven years ago" and ends with "government by the people, for the people". Then I sat down to write my first marketing case in one of the rooms of the Graduate Library. The Grad Library is in Uris Hall (though we've been calling it Uri's Hall), a building planned by William H Miller. I thought that was a bit more significant, but after writing the name, I googled it and came up with mostly nothing - I'll go back to the library and see what they have there. The point is that it's this beautiful old looking buildings, that includes a clock tower with bells. Did I already mention that they occasionally play concerts on those bells?
I sit in this beautiful room that overlooks the lake, and has so much atmosphere in it makes it seem like time goes by more slowly. This last part is very important because school has been very intensive since classes started last Monday, that is the reason I haven't blogged in more than a week.
You would, of course, be mistaken.
I am actually referring to the pressure I am putting on Uri by posting this blog to go ahead and post the next blog himself. Now I explain: We finally bought a desktop, and then finally the university let us have a second IP address so we could connect that computer to the Internet, and then finally installed the voice-to-text software we bought before coming here. (I sort of took the whole point out of the word "finally" there, didn't I?) So, as it turns out, Uri can write in English. There are a little mistakes here and there, but as some of you bother to comment, I make a few mistakes too - don't I?
So just to clarify - Uri is perfectly capable of blogging now, and if he doesn't do it, it's because he doesn't care about any of you readers ;)
I reserve a short comment for myself - we'll go for a subtitle:
You'll understand only when you get here
Today, after a mildly useless strategic leadership course that lasted 4 hours I had a true Ivy league experience. I went to the basement floor of Cornell's undergrad library to see a one of 5 copies of the Gettysburg Address. That's the one that starts with "Four score and seven years ago" and ends with "government by the people, for the people". Then I sat down to write my first marketing case in one of the rooms of the Graduate Library. The Grad Library is in Uris Hall (though we've been calling it Uri's Hall), a building planned by William H Miller. I thought that was a bit more significant, but after writing the name, I googled it and came up with mostly nothing - I'll go back to the library and see what they have there. The point is that it's this beautiful old looking buildings, that includes a clock tower with bells. Did I already mention that they occasionally play concerts on those bells?
I sit in this beautiful room that overlooks the lake, and has so much atmosphere in it makes it seem like time goes by more slowly. This last part is very important because school has been very intensive since classes started last Monday, that is the reason I haven't blogged in more than a week.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Comments for my future doctoral thesis
I'll start with explaining the title - I have no intention of doing a doctorate at this point in my life. However, I can't really turn off my sociologist view of the world. The interactions of my class and the things said in my classroom are enough to be the base of not just one, but several theses. I started writing a document i named "After thoughts", but I thought it would be much more interesting to share those thoughts with you.
I had a class today called "Foundations in Leadership" in which we were presented a story about a guy named Chad. Chad, an office-supplies salesman, was approached by Jerry who said he would buy a large quantity of office supplies if he were given a Rolex watch. The story gets a bit more complex, with Chad's BF, his Banker, his Boss and the Boss' secretary as additional characters. The assignment was to create a hierarchy of the characters, ranking them according to their morality (or lack there of). I, like many of the international students, had Jerry as least moral. Most of the Americans had Chad as least moral.
In this libertarian country, founded by a group of Protestants, it's all about choice and personal responsibility. Chad was the least moral because he made a conscious choice to bribe Jerry.
I had a class today called "Foundations in Leadership" in which we were presented a story about a guy named Chad. Chad, an office-supplies salesman, was approached by Jerry who said he would buy a large quantity of office supplies if he were given a Rolex watch. The story gets a bit more complex, with Chad's BF, his Banker, his Boss and the Boss' secretary as additional characters. The assignment was to create a hierarchy of the characters, ranking them according to their morality (or lack there of). I, like many of the international students, had Jerry as least moral. Most of the Americans had Chad as least moral.
In this libertarian country, founded by a group of Protestants, it's all about choice and personal responsibility. Chad was the least moral because he made a conscious choice to bribe Jerry.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)